Landscapes and Buildings

In this gallery you will see the landscape and building art that Nico Bulder created during his life. First there is a section with special galleries dedicated to specific topics, then comes the main gallery.

Groningen Pen Drawings

Nico Bulder’s efforts in this field started in 1927 when the city of Groningen passed the 100,000 inhabitants threshold and asked a young Nico Bulder to create a series of pen drawings of the city to celebrate the occasion. This successful commission helped build his name as a young artist. Here are those pen drawings. They give you an impression how the city of Groningen looked liked a century ago.

Hoogezand Pen Drawings

These pen drawings of the “old Hoogezand” were created in 1953 to celebrate the 25 year anniversary of the Hoogezand public library. Four of the five drawings give a good impression of the unique characteristics of the Hoogezand environment in 1875.

The Anloo Church Mystery

The old church in Anloo and its surroundings were a favorite setting for Nico Bulder’s art. Several examples are shown in the main gallery below. Nico Bulder was thus very familiar with the area. Additionally, as an expert in wood engraving Nico Bulder knew perfectly well that an image should be mirrored in the wood block or copper etching plate to allow for a correct perspective of the printed illustration…..

The illustration on the old postcard shows the correct perspective of the church. Now look closely at the reprint made posthumously by Anne Huitema of an etching created by Nico Bulder: the perspective is mirrored! This means that Nico Bulder did not create a mirrored image in the copper etching plate. Nobody knows why he did that. Did the real perspective maybe not satisfy his artistic imagination?

It gets even more interesting….look at the illustration of the Anloo church as it was published in the book “Anloo in het landschap Drenthe” (1982 by H. Lanjouw): this picture has the correct perspective. How is that possible? Hendrik Veenhof provided the answer: according to him, Nico Bulder’s friend and colleague Evert Musch was involved in the publication of mentioned book. He felt that a technically incorrect perspective of the church would possibly negatively affect the reader’s opinion, while Nico Bulder was not in a position anymore to defend his artistic considerations 18 years after his death. Consequently, Evert Musch felt obliged to have the picture mirrored to bring back the technically correct church orientation. Although Nico Bulder may have disagreed from an artistic perspective, still Evert Musch’s action was a heart-warming gesture of friendship.

Groningen Landscape Etchings for “Nederlandse Spoorwegen” (Dutch Railways Company)

Main Gallery